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Thursday, March 09, 2017

Please Let Congress Know It's a No on HB610

In late January, HR 610 was introduced by Steve King of Iowa, with representatives from Maryland, Texas and Arizona signing on.

You can read a summary of the bill here.
HR 610, the School Choice Act, would eliminate the Elementary and
Secondary Education Act of 1965, which was passed as a part of Lyndon B. Johnson’s “War on Poverty.”

Federal funds would be used instead to create “block grants” to be
used to “distribute a portion of funds to parents who elect to enroll
their child in a private school or to home-school their child.” It would
also roll back nutritional standards for free lunches for poor
children.

Repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act will hurt school funding for disabled students. Write Congress and tell them to preserve Medicaid school funding for kids.* It is very clear that bills like HR 610, which would provide vouchers to private and religious schools, would be supported by both the U.S. Department of Education and the White House. In fact, it would appear that every alternative to democratically controlled public schools will be favored, while a clear bias against public schools will exist.

Send an email today to your Representatives that says, “Do not sign on to or support HR 610.” We make it easy to do. Just click here.

We need to send a clear message that we cannot afford, nor do we support, private and religious school vouchers. We do not want our public schools defunded as private schools, religious schools, charters and online for-profits are pushed.

*They are referring to the fact that school districts receive
Medicaid dollars for some Sped students. HB 610 will eliminate the
ESSA and thus those dollars.

7 comments:

Outsider
said...

Just a suggestion to the zero Republican congresscreatures who read this blog: To make the legislation more appealing, you could add provisions to enable parents to form home-school cooperatives and hire their own teachers. Authorize a payroll agency like ADP to accept vouchers and disburse salary and benefits to licensed teachers appointed by the cooperatives. Include a prevailing wage provision (compensation must match or exceed local union contract) to reduce teacher opposition. That part goes against the Republican grain, of course, but if your goal is to build a coalition to get the law passed, and to make it sticky in the future, you have to be pragmatic.

You have previously admitted that this bill has no chance of passing. I agree that it does not have a chance of passing. So why does the Network for Public Education keep pretending that this is the wolf at the door? King threw this bill out as a welcome mat for Betsy De Vos. It's not a real threat, and I'm not stupid enough to think that it is. I think the Network for Public Education needs to be a little smarter with what it portraying as a threat. What about the bill to eliminate the Department of Education--HR 899, or the bill to void the protections of the IDEA for using public money at private schools for students with disabilities S 235? According to Predictgov, these both have higher chances of passing. Can we have some realistic discussions about federal education issues without banging the drum of hysteria?

I agree... I am very worried. The proposed House GOP healthcare bill would have catastrophic impact on students. The immigration issues are also very worrisome. As far as education goes, I think the voucher issue is real, I just don't think any bill which mandates that a state must make federal funds available for use at private schools would be constitutional, in that it would exceed Congress’s power under the Spending Clause. I think we are likely to see more bills that are a bit better thought out that provide for expanding vouchers. Ugh!

Education Acroynms

Advanced Learning - SPS' three-tier program for advanced learners. Made up of APP, Spectrum and ALOs. (Note: the name of the district program is "Advanced Learning Services and Programs" but these three programs fall under "Highly Capable Services" of AL Services and Programs.

ALO - Advanced Learning Opportunity, the third tier of SPS' Advanced Learning program

AP - Advanced Placement. A national program of college-level classes given in high schools.

APP - Accelerated Progress Program. One of the levels of the Advanced Learning Program. NOTE: the name of this program is now "HIGHLY CAPABLE COHORT." This change occurred in 2014.

ASB - Associated Student Body. High school leadership groups.

AYP - Adequate Yearly Progress. Part of NCLB.

BEX - Building Excellence. SPS' capital renovation/rebuilding program that is funded via the BEX levy. Every 3 years there is the Operations levy and either the BEX or BTA levies as those two levies rotate in six year cycles).

BLT - Building Leadership Team. Staff members at a school who meet regularly to discuss building issues.

BTA - Buildings, Technology, Academics. The major maintenance/other capital fund for SPS. Originally BTA was to cover major maintenance like HVAC (heating, ventilation, air conditioning), roofs, waterlines, etc.) but now covers wide swaths of items like athletic fields, technology and funding academic needs.

CAICEE - Community Advisory Committee for Investing in Educational Excellence. Created by former Superintendent Manhas in 2008, to issue a report about reform recommendations for SPS.

CSIP - Continuous School Improvement Plan, the plan for improvement for each school as required by state law.

EOC - End of Course Assessments, given in math and science, required for high school graduationESEA - Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the federal law that governs education, includes the NCLB accountability provisions.

e-STEM or e-STEAM - STEM or STEAM curriculum with an environmental focus.

FACMAC - Facilities and Capacity Management Advisory Committee. A district committee comprises of an all-volunteer citizen group created in 2012 to help bring research and ideas to capacity management issues in the district.

FERPA - Family Education Rights and Privacy Act. A federal law that protects students' privacy

FRL - Free and reduced lunch.

FTE - Full Time Equivalent

FY - Fiscal Year

Highly Capable Services - NEW name (as of 2014) as umbrella name for these programs: Highly Capable Cohort (formerly APP), Spectrum and ALO (Advanced Learning Opportunities).

HSPE - High School Proficiency Exam, state assessment that replaced the WASL for 10th graders, required for graduation

HQT - Highly Qualified Teacher, a standard set by federal law

IA - Instructional Assistant

IB - International Baccalaureate program. An international program of advanced classes that can either be taken as stand alone or as part of an overall IB program.

IDEA - Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. The federal law that governs special education

MAP - Measures of Academic Progress. A computer-based adaptive assessment made by NWEA and originally purchased by the district for use as a district-wide formative assessment but now used for a wide variety of purposes.

MSP - Measurement of Student Progress, the state proficiency assessment that replaced the WASL for students in grades 1-8

MTSS - Multi-Tiered Systems of Support

NCLB - No Child Left Behind, a provision of the federal education law, ESEA, introduced during the George W. Bush administration